章節 3: 6,7,8
From Rota, via a road that skirted Pewter, the travellers went eastwards towards Mount Moon.
"Mount Moon," Brock said. "It's a strange place, really."
"Huh?" Ash replied. "I know there's Clefairy and stuff there, but there's weird Pokémon in a lot of places."
"Well," Brock began, then shrugged. "I've got a bit of a hobby of amateur geology. It's part of being a rock-type gym leader, you want to know what's bedrock assumptions and what keeps you grounded."
Riolu tutted. "I'd quite like to tell you off for that one."
"The strange thing is," Brock resumed. "There's lots of Moon Stones found around here. That means meteorites, mostly, but you wouldn't expect meteorites to mostly land in one place. That's the strange thing."
He shrugged. "Of course, these days, it's just part of the main route to Cerulean. Though that doesn't usually go right through the caves."
"We're going to have to, though, right?" Misty asked. "For Brock's Zubat, I mean. Er, Crobat… Zubat… which do you even call him at this point?"
"I guess maybe the name of what he is now?" Ash guessed. "Or what he was before. Either's fine… and I think I can see him up ahead, too-"
Ash tripped and slammed into the ground, sending Pikachu scattering forwards and leaving behind Riolu who'd hopped into the air just in time.
"Ow," the trainer mumbled, then rolled over.
The rock that Ash had landed on glared at him, then rolled off in a huff.
"I thought you were supposed to be training your Aura Sight?" Pikachu asked, from where he'd landed.
"Yeah, but it's hard!" Ash protested, feeling his toe. "If I have my eyes open then I'm not using Aura Sight, or I can't tell if I am properly, but if I close my eyes then the only rocks I can see are the ones that are actually Geodude."
"Don't you have a blindfold with you?" Pikachu asked.
"Yeah, but that doesn't make things easier," Ash complained.
"Yes it does," Pikachu replied.
"How?"
Pikachu tutted. "Put it over one eye, Ash."
Ash stopped halfway through getting up again. "Oh, yeah, I could do that… why didn't you mention that before?"
Riolu rubbed his temples. "I think I'm starting to see what Pidgeot meant."
"Same old Ash," Misty said. "He was like this in Sinnoh, right?"
"I should tell you about how he calmed down his Monferno once," Brock mused.
Dexter went beep. Then bing.
You have a text message, the Pokédex stated. I'm trying to work out the best way to provide an alert.
"Oh, can I?" Riolu asked, opening Ash's bag and extracting the Pokédex. "Let's see…"
He turned around, offering Ash the opportunity to read it as well, and Ash began reading it aloud.
"Let's see… battle in ten minutes, it'll be filmed, don't wreck this chance for us twerps. J-J-M-A-W plus G."
"Oh, so that J-J-M-A-W must have been Jessie, James, Meowth, Arbok, Weezing," Misty said. "But who's G?"
"Uh…" Ash began, thinking. "The only Pokémon I can think of that might fit is James' pet Growlithe."
"That does make sense," Brock said. "And that number they left us must have been their phone number… and I feel like we're idiots for not seeing that one coming."
Ash straightened, then let Pikachu and Riolu clamber up to his shoulders. "You remember what we said about Team Rocket, right, Riolu?"
"That them thinking about stealing me was nothing unusual," Riolu said, one paw cupping the other arm's elbow as he thought. "That they're good at disguises… that they tend to help out when it's really serious… and that they're obsessed with stealing Pikachu."
"That's about right," Pikachu agreed. "And they're also really good at recovering after being blasted into the sky, it's a bit of a signature by now."
"It's weird having warning that it's about to happen, but… here goes, I guess," Misty said.
They didn't have to wait long, and Team Rocket were waiting just over the next hill.
Complete with all the trimmings. Meowth shaped balloon, Jessie with a big megaphone… there was no giant robot, though.
Had they done giant robots at this point?
"A-ha-ha-ha!" Jessie laughed. "You've fallen right into our trap!"
"And it's such a shame, too," James agreed. "Since it looks like you've started taking care of your appearance! A pity it's hundreds of years out of style."
"You're from Team Rocket!" Ash said. "What are you trying to do?"
"Why, steal those Pokémon of yours, of course!" Jessie replied. "What did you think Team Rocket did, manufacture fireworks?"
"Now, pay attention!" James said. "And you'd better pay attention, or you might end up missing something important."
"Prepare for trouble, you know the drill!" Jessie said.
"And make it double – you'll get your fill!" James agreed.
"Is this a new one?" Misty asked quietly.
"Pikachu and I heard it before," Ash replied. "But I guess it's new, too..."
Jessie declared that they were there to protect the world from devastation, and James added that it was to unite all people within their nation. Then Jessie said they denounced the evils of truth and love, while James said their aim was to extend their reach to the stars above.
"Is this normal?" Riolu said.
"By this point I could recite this by heart," Pikachu answered, as Jessie and James introduced themselves.
"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!" James added, which was considerably more threatening than the previous line if you knew what blasting off usually meant.
Then the ground shook.
"Dat's right!" Meowth's voice agreed, and a robotic Rhyhorn dug its way up from the ground.
"A giant robot?" Butterfree said, startled. "Huh."
"And that ain't all you missed!" Meowth said, as Jessie and James jumped down into the robot. "This is somethin' of a reunion, you know!"
"Meowth's right!" James confirmed. "Growlie, let's see another Flare Blitz!"
A blazing trail of fire flashed past between Ash and the others, prompting them all to jump aside, and Growlie skidded to a halt just in front of the mecha-Rhyhorn.
As an Arcanine.
"Oh, yeah," Ash admitted, getting to his feet again and reaching for Aaron's gloves. "Fire stones."
"Fire one!" James called, and the Rhyhorn launched out Arbok and Weezing. Her Poison-type was wrapped around James' one, and Arbok fired out a barrage of Poison Sting attacks which peppered the ground around Brock and Misty.
"Steelix!" Brock called, and his Starter emerged from his Pokéball. There was a rattle as the rest of the Poison Sting attacks bounced off, and Misty sent out her team.
Staryu and Starmie landed on the ground, and she held Goldeen in both hands before pointing her up at Arbok and Weezing. "Water Gun!"
The Water-type began pondering to herself if she was technically now a held item.
Back on Ash's side of the barrier, he sent out the last Pokémon he had with him. "Pidgeot, can you deal with Arbok and Weezing?"
"Easily!" Pidgeot replied. "I'll try not to fan the flames, though, that's going to be a bit trickier."
"You help her, Butterfree," Ash instructed.
"Why isn't she helping me?" Butterfree asked.
"Fire two!" James called, and this time Meowth came sailing out of the Rhyhorn's mouth. He hit Pidgeot before she could process what was happening, and began trying his best to demonstrate Fury Swipes was an effective way of dealing with a Flying-type as Pidgeot surged upwards to try and dislodge him.
"I'll handle this," Pikachu said, sparks building around his cheeks, then vaulted into the air and slapped an Electroball at the mecha. "And… Thunder!"
Thunder blazed across, combining with the Electroball, and there was a bang that echoed across the mountainside.
When the flash had faded, though, the Rhyhorn was still there.
"That's impressive," Ash admitted.
"I think I need a change of clothes," James mumbled through the PA system.
"Never mind that!" Jessie said forcefully. "Growlie! Set something on fire! Arbok, Dig!"
Arbok sprang off Weezing and plunged into the ground with a crunch, just as Brock's Steelix charged into the Rhyhorn and sent it sliding backwards a few feet. Then it fought back, the engine making the whole vehicle shiver as it matched its strength against Steelix, and Ash looked back and forth to try and keep track of what was going on.
"Riolu, use Aura sight – keep track of Arbok!" he said. "Uh oh – look!"
Growlie had considered the situation, and decided the best thing to set on fire was Brock's Steelix. The Fire-type was firing a continuous blast of Flamethrower at Steelix, now, heating the Steel-type up rapidly, and Misty redirected all of her Water-types from Weezing to cooling Steelix down.
"Dig, Geodude!" Brock instructed. "Go after that Arcanine!"
"You too, Pikachu!" Ash said, and Pikachu opened fire with Thunderbolt attacks.
As it turned out, though, Growlie was very fast and had excellent awareness of what was going on. He didn't quite dodge all of Pikachu's attacks, but he certainly dodged all the ones that had any kind of wind-up, and he even spared enough attention to avoid Geodude's attack as well.
Pidgeot was off trying to get free of Meowth. Butterfree was battling Weezing overhead and stopping him from drifting down Smog on the rest of the battlefield, and even as Ash turned to check on him Riolu dodged to the side away from a Dig attack by Arbok.
There was one way left Ash could help, and he put his gloved hands together. Then he broke into a run, and hurled an Aura Sphere at Growlie.
James' Fire-type had been ready for Pikachu, and for Geodude, but he had absolutely no clue that Ash could do anything like that. It distracted him, first when he spotted it and second when it changed course to follow his dodge, and that meant he took a hit – then Ash hit Growlie with a Force Palm, and that knocked the Arcanine rolling over and over before he could skid to a halt.
There was a crunching sound, followed by a roar, and Brock's Steelix blasted a Dragon Breath through the open mouth of the Mecha Rhyhorn.
"Abandon Rhyhorn!" James yelped.
He and Jessie activated ejector seats, then returned their Pokémon, and as they cut the mooring rope the balloon turned out to be heavily over-engineered. It went rocketing skywards, wobbling from side to side, then a gliding parachute blossomed overhead as Pidgeot finally shook Meowth off and the feline Normal-type began steering towards his teammates.
"Phew," Brock said, exhaling. "Were they like that in Unova?"
"I don't think I really thought through how much time their Pokémon spent training," Ash admitted, as Misty had Goldeen and Starmie extinguish the last of the flames. "Great work, everyone…"
"No," Sir Aaron said.
But-
"No. I don't care how much you all like the idea, we are not doing sumo wrestling next."
He paused. "Lord Arceus, creator of all."
Very well, then, Arceus decided. Badminton?
"How would badminton work?" Aaron asked.
You didn't bother asking that about sumo wrestling.
"That's because I didn't want a demonstration, mostly," Aaron said. "I don't suppose there's an option that's not a sport?"
Well, now, Arceus considered. Have you ever played Monopoly?
"I don't think so," Sir Aaron decided.
Then we'll play that, Arceus declared, raising his hoof. Red and Blue version?
"I don't even know what that means," the human admitted.
Kanto version, then. Arceus struck the immanent space below them with a hoof, and a board appeared.
Dialga perked up, and nudged at the little metal boot.
Very well, Dialga, you are the boot, Arceus allowed. Though it would help to use words. Palkia, the car seems appropriate for you.
Palkia accepted that piece, and Arceus considered the remaining two.
I shall be the Growlithe, he said. Thus, you will be the bowler hat.
"It's not as good as my real hat," Sir Aaron said, taking the playing piece anyway. "My real hat's useful, it can-"
Ssh, it hasn't been revealed yet.
"What do you mean?"
Arceus, Creator of All (and a monopoly set), looked distinctly shifty. Never you mind.
The recording wound to a close, with the ground dropping away below, then the image cut out entirely.
Giovanni allowed himself a small smile. Then, seeing the worry on the faces of the agents he was with, allowed it to widen into a grin.
A controlled one, though.
"Well, well," he said. "I am impressed. You've chosen something of a difficult target, this time, but then again you've shown some surprising skills. On that subject… where did the giant robot come from?"
"There's a company that makes them bespoke," James said.
"And we got in a rush order," Jessie agreed. "They do loyalty discounts, too!"
"Yeah, an' whose work is it that meant we could pay the rush fee in the first place?" Meowth asked, then clammed up a little belatedly.
He was right, of course… the Rocket cell's budget wasn't tiny, but it couldn't have afforded a mecha along with everyone else that soon. At least not as a rush job.
Fortunately, they'd made a lot of money betting on a Rapidash race… albeit not without trouble. Jessie and James had remembered exactly how the race had gone, because they'd lost most of their budget on it last time around, and when the race had come around again… they'd wanted to bet on exactly the same Rapidash, because how likely was it for the same horse to lose twice in a row?
Which was why Meowth had stolen the budget and made the bet himself. It had worked, for once.
"Well, then… good work," Giovanni decided. "Of course, that assumes that you will avoid making mistakes in the future, but for now, good work. Now… I noticed that you were especially pointing out how well the robot held up against that Pikachu."
"That's right!" James agreed. "It didn't explode! Which was a possibility."
"We should probably tell them their catalogue was right on the money, yeah," Meowth nodded. "It said immune to electricity, an' all that happened was a bit of damage."
"That is not holding up to the catalogue," Giovanni stressed, lightly, interested in pressing this point to see what happened.
"That's because it was dealing with that Pikachu," Jessie retorted. "That's a really strong Electric-type, boss."
"Hmm," Giovanni said, then nodded a little. "I'll take your word for it."
He hid a smirk at the relieved whooshes of breath from the Rockets. "Now, this boy, the Pikachu's trainer… I believe he used a Pokémon attack there? And that's a Riolu he has."
"Dat's new," Meowth admitted. "But yeah."
Giovanni rewound the tape, to get the best picture of Ash, and considered the paused scene for a minute.
"Yes," he said, eventually. "The gloves, the boots… combined, I think I know what's going on. That boy resembles the legendary hero, Sir Aaron. To a disquieting degree."
He went silent again.
Giovanni sometimes found that it was better to wait for someone else to speak.
"So… is there anything else, boss?" Jessie asked.
"Hmm?" Giovanni asked. "Oh, yes. That Arcanine of yours, I want it."
James jerked as if stung. "Boss?"
"You heard me," Giovanni said, swivelling his chair slightly. "Hand him over. He's clearly an exceptional specimen, from the recording alone. That's the kind of firepower that Team Rocket needs, and it needs it where the higher-ups can access it."
He leaned forwards slightly. "So. The Pokémon, please."
James reached for the Pokéball on his belt, hesitated, then took his hand away again. "No – n, er… I… no."
"You're sure?" Giovanni asked, silkily, and Persian prowled around behind him. "Defying your leader?"
Jessie and James shrank back, and Meowth fell off his chair, as the leader of Team Rocket gazed at them. "W-we'd never defy you, boss!"
"Then hand over the Pokémon," Giovanni said. "Need I remind you of the real motto?"
Three synchronized head-shakes.
"Steal Pokémon for profit. Exploit Pokémon for profit. All Pokémon exist for the glory of Team Rocket," Jessie provided, nervously.
"Then what's the problem?" Giovanni asked. "Will you defy me over something so insignificant? You can certainly requisition more – and more diverse – Pokémon from the team pool."
Jessie and James looked at one another, then both turned to Meowth.
The three of them nodded to one another, and James gave their answer.
Admittedly while visibly trembling.
"With all due respect, Boss, you'll never get Growlie. He's… a good friend of mine."
Giovanni glowered at them for a moment longer, then… smiled. A genuine smile, full of warmth.
"Very good. You pass."
Both Jessie and James overbalanced at the same time with a crash as their chairs fell over.
"You mean to say dat was a test?" Meowth demanded from the floor, irate, then his fury turned into a gulp as Persian bared his fangs.
Giovanni stroked the Classy Cat, and Persian calmed down. "Of course," he said. "That business about profit is all very good for the grunts, but Team Rocket is more than that… it's one thing to make money and have control, but for that we need somewhere to control."
He sat back. "You three have just qualified for Executive status, and that means you can learn about the true purpose of Team Rocket. You might have heard of it, it's even in the motto you said earlier."
"...there ain't much in there to say, is there?" Meowth asked, perplexed.
"The other motto," Giovanni replied. "Protect the world from devastation. Layers within layers. It means finding the things that might threaten the world, and us with it – and stopping them. Working with useful idiots, if need be."
Jessie had got her chair back upright now, and she stopped. "Um, boss? Who are the useful idiots?"
"That boy you battled would count," Giovanni said, opening a drawer in his desk. "They're also known as heroes."
He slid three small badges across the desk. "Here. These are your new rank insignia. As of now, your job is to make sure your cell is stronger, trail this Ash Ketchum, test his strength when you can, and steer him into anything big that might be coming."
Then Giovanni smiled.
It was still warm, but it wasn't friendly any more. "Oh, and don't boast about any of this. You might need to sacrifice someone else's… less important plans… and we don't want anyone slacking off."
Jessie, James and Meowth waited to see if there was anything more the Boss had to say, then left the room.
Perhaps 'fled' was a better term.
7
On the eastern side of Mount Moon, four curved wings cut through the air.
Crobat sped up, beating all four wings at once, then did a split-X with his hind wings to veer off course from the path he'd been taking. The sudden swerve brought him practically spinning around in mid-air, and Butterfree made an appreciative noise.
"Not bad," he said. "You've improved."
"I could say the same about you, but then again I never actually saw what you looked like before," Crobat replied, circling around and orbiting their trainers below. "So I don't know. Maybe you were this good before."
Butterfree flapped his wings. "I like you," he decided. "That's a nice thing to say because it doesn't matter if I agree or not, I look bad."
"Poison-type has to show up somehow," Crobat shrugged. "It's great to be on the road again with Brock, though."
At the same time as the two Flying-types were discussing being on the road, Ash and Misty below them were discussing what was at the far end of it.
"So, Misty, I guess I'm challenging you for the Cerulean Gym badge again," he said. "Only, what kind of challenge is it? Do you want some help getting it ready?"
He shaded his eyes. "We're too far to tell yet, but I could probably restore your Gyarados if you had a close connection to them? I don't know for sure though, it's one of those things that we can't tell yet… James' Growlie wasn't."
"I guess we'll find that out," Misty agreed. "But don't think I'm going to rely on Gyarados, Ash Ketchum! In fact, I bet you'd like that because it'd mean you could have Pikachu blast him!"
She folded her arms. "So! I'm going to challenge you to a battle that means you can't rely on a single overpowered Pokémon! Three one on one battles, the winner is whoever passes the majority of them."
"Okay, I get it," Ash said. "Though, uh… you know I could just take the badge from your sisters, right?"
"Don't you dare, Ash Ketchum!" Misty said sharply.
Ash held up his hands. "I wasn't going to actually do it! Besides, my Pokémon would riot."
"You bet we would," Pikachu agreed. "It's a shame I can't handle Misty's gym by myself though."
"You already called dibs on the Electric gym," Riolu complained, with a huff. "You don't get to have them all!"
"Who's the team leader here?" Pikachu asked. "Isn't this insubordination or something?"
"I'm a Riolu, I know what a just leader looks like!" Riolu replied. "And it's not like a tyrannical Pikachu, hoarding all the gym fights to himself!"
Ash tried not to laugh. "Guys… don't leave me feeling like I'm in the middle of this…"
"But you are in the middle of this," Pikachu said.
Ash turned to Brock. "Is it weird to feel nostalgic sometimes for when I didn't understand exactly what my Pokémon were saying?"
"Don't look at me, Ash," Brock replied, watching Crobat overhead as he tried his best to show off Cross Poison to Butterfree and found it very hard to line up a hit. "I still can't understand anyone, except Butterfree, and I think after last night I'm not sure if I want to learn the Aura stuff."
"Last night was both of us trying to learn from Riolu," Ash protested, thinking about it.
His arm still ached slightly from turning his own Aura into the Electric-type, which had paralyzed Riolu and also his own arm, so Pikachu had won more-or-less by default.
"It's not actually necessary to do that, I just… well, I was supposed to teach Riolu, and I want to catch up enough so that we're at least learning from each other."
"You already do teach me things," Riolu protested.
"I want to do more for you, though," Ash explained. "And to… live up to Sir Aaron, I guess. That's why I've been working on this stuff."
He frowned. "Uh… how close are we to Cerulean?"
"Several hours at least," Misty said. "We might get there late today, or it might not be until tomorrow."
"Got it," Ash replied, taking a notebook from Aaron's bag. "Hey, Dexter, remember that idea I had?"
I will do my best, the thinking Pokédex replied, and Ash got Dexter out.
Juggling Dexter and the notebook made it impossible to do what he actually wanted, until Pikachu took pity on him and took hold of the Pokédex, but after that was done Ash held the notebook up and flipped through it at high speed.
OCR complete, his Pokédex reported.
"What's this about?" Brock said.
The notebook is about healing, including healing with Aura.
"Oh, right," the Pewter leader realized. "So you've read the notebook like that?"
"That's the idea!" Ash agreed. "And, uh… headphones, right…"
"Are you turning wisdom from two thousand years ago into an audio book?" Misty said. "I… actually, honestly, that's not even at the top of the list of weird things you've done. It even makes sense, kind of."
"It's this or I have to sit there reading for months to get any idea of how this all works!" Ash defended himself.
"And we all know you couldn't sit there for half an hour, let alone months," Pikachu said sagely.
They didn't make it to Cerulean, that day, and Ash sat down with his Pokémon in camp that evening.
"There's something I need to check," he began. "Pidgeot, I don't think you can battle in the Cerulean Gym, not like last time. It's too small for you."
"Probably true," Pidgeot agreed. "I'm a lot better at working in small spaces than you'd expect, but… yes, the wide open sky is my battlefield now, more than anything else."
"Thanks for understanding," Ash said, putting his hand on her side. "And, Butterfree… I think you're ready already?"
"I sure am," Butterfree confirmed, wings flapping. "I'll make a point of showing what Bugs can do!"
"I bet you will," Ash agreed. "Pikachu, I know you're good to battle Cerulean Gym, and Riolu, you're great with Aura… and what I really want to focus on at the moment is your Aura, Pikachu. You've got Force Palm, which is great, but that's close-in – and if you wanted to use it at Cerulean Gym, you'd need to be able to launch an attack at range."
"Right…" Pikachu said, considering. "I suppose it'd be nice to be able to attack Steelix without getting close enough for him to knock me flying. If he was about to knock me flying otherwise, I mean."
"Exactly," Ash agreed. "So… oh, uh, Pidgeot, Butterfree, you can go to bed if you want. I just wanted to check you were okay with the plans for tomorrow."
"Thank you for checking, Ash," Pidgeot said, and returned herself.
"I'm sort of interested," Butterfree demurred.
"Okay, so…" Ash glanced at Riolu. "I guess, point out if I'm getting any of this wrong? So, for an Aura Sphere, you need to get used to releasing Aura constantly, and then stopping once it's the right size. The right size depends on the situation, but there's a classic size which is easiest."
"Releasing Aura constantly," Pikachu repeated, holding out his paw. "Um… like this?"
Blue and yellow light fizzled around his paw, then just blue. It glowed and sparked, getting stronger and then weaker, and Riolu winced.
"Um," he said. "Is it okay if I tell the truth?"
"Ouch," Pikachu decided.
"Basically, um, if you tried to use that in an Aura Sphere you'd hit yourself, because it would explode," Riolu summarized. "When Ash says constant, he means a constant and steady flow."
"That would have been useful to know," Pikachu admitted, focusing on his own paw and trying to control the fizzing blue energy. "So, um, push harder if it's weaker and hold back if it's stronger?"
"That kind of thing," Ash agreed. "That's what you need to know to get started, then after that what you have to do is contain it. It's something you do right at the start, but you need a steady flow first because otherwise it'll just explode as you try and build it and you won't know if you're doing it right. It's like… well, the idea is that it only lets energy in?"
He waved his hand. "So it grows larger, then it's not until it hits something that the energy comes out again. But if your aura stream fizzes then it'll burst the sphere."
"Right," Pikachu said. "And then you throw it?"
"That depends!" Ash answered. "You pick how big you want it to be, that's a more advanced bit. There's a natural normal size, and then bigger ones are more destructive overall while smaller ones are more focused and agile. That's the normal rule. But yeah, then you can throw it…"
He held up his hand, and formed an Aura Sphere himself.
"It's still so cool you're doing that, have I mentioned?" Riolu asked.
"Thing is, if you just throw it, it usually misses," Ash said. "Spinning it means it's stabilized, like Drill Run attacks are and things like that, and it goes straighter… actually making it track in on a target is harder and I guess we should work on that later."
"That makes it sounds like I'm going to get anything like that far tonight," Pikachu said, ears twitching. "This is really hard."
"Try damping down your flow a bit more," Riolu suggested.
"That's going to help?" Pikachu asked.
"It might, but more importantly it'll mean you can keep practicing for longer," Riolu replied.
"Don't get frustrated, Pikachu," Ash advised. "This isn't easy."
"You're telling me," Pikachu grumbled.
"Half an hour, okay?" Ash said. "Then, well, I had this idea that's going to finish off the other project."
"That sounds much more interesting," Pikachu said, then flicked his tail down, switched to electrically-infused Aura, and formed a spinning sphere out of it before launching it into a nearby tree with a wham.
"Congratulations," Riolu announced. "You used Electroball, only it was way more tiring."
Pikachu sighed. "I know, I know, I'm just… frustrated. It's a new thing and I can't build on most of my experience."
The next morning, at Cerulean Gym, Ash knocked on the door.
The door opened, which was half the point of a door, and Violet greeted him. "Oh, hi – wow, that's a cute Pokémon you've got there."
"Which one?" Ash asked. "I think Pikachu and Riolu are both neat!"
"Well, I know what Pikachu look like, so that must mean it's the Riolu," Violet decided. "Anyway, like I said, cute."
She stepped back. "Welcome to Cerulean Gym! I guess you're here for a gym battle, right?"
"We're the Sensational Sisters!" Lily agreed.
"And we're the Cerulean Gym Leaders," Daisy continued. "Though, there's a bit of a problem… you see, our Pokémon have been working hard already today, and we've got this thing later… we have to ration out our gym Pokémon. So we can do a one Pokémon a side battle?"
Misty looked like she was about to grind her teeth away.
"I'll battle him!" she said. "I'll only use one Pokémon of the ones you think are good for gym battles, one of my own team, and I'll use a third Pokémon too! That's going to be a much better challenge, and trust me, that's going to work better."
"Are you sure?" Violet asked. "You're the runt. Why should we let you look after the honour of Cerulean Gym?"
"I did the test, same as you!" Misty retorted, overheated. "I'm as much a gym leader as you three, in fact I'm more of one if you're doing whatever else it is that means you can't even give a trainer a proper work out! You didn't even ask how many badges he has!"
"I don't think I ever asked," Ash admitted, leaning over to Brock. "What's the test?"
"It's a test of how well you know your type," Brock answered. "You have to battle the Elite Four. There's a lot of strong, varied Pokémon available for you to rent and use in the battles, and you know what they're going to use ahead of time, but you need to really impress them and ideally win the matches… from what I heard, Misty beat Bruno and Lance."
He shrugged. "I managed to beat Lorelei, but that was close. She's a tough trainer, as well as being a total babe!"
Pikachu's cheeks sparked.
"She's not even here!" Brock protested.
"Okay, that's it!" Misty declared, from in the middle of the argument. "I'll show you what I'm talking about!"
She headed for one of the nearest doors, one leading deeper into the gym and its tanks full of a wide variety of Water type Pokémon.
A few minutes later, and Lily had been persuaded to act as referee.
"It's three matches a side," she said. "Each is one on one. Neither winner nor loser can join another match. Understood?"
"Yeah!" Ash agreed.
"Of course," Misty confirmed. "Choose your Pokémon, Ash!"
Ash had three choices, like he'd discussed last night.
"Riolu, you first!" he decided, and his Fighting-type stepped forwards before jumping onto one of the platforms in the middle of the pool.
Then Misty sent out her Starmie.
"Uh oh," Ash decided. "Riolu, I hope you learned a Dark-type move since last time we talked?"
"Nope, no such luck," Riolu replied.
"Then just do your best!" Ash called. "I guess Misty's been sneaky today…"
"Planning on it," Riolu replied, closing one eye.
"Begin, I guess!" Lily said.
"Open fire!" Misty ordered.
Riolu immediately leapt into the water as Starmie opened with a Thunderbolt, keeping one forepaw on the edge of the platform, then yanked himself back out again as Starmie followed up their Thunderbolt with a Water Pulse.
"Aura Sphere," Ash called, prompting Riolu to spin one up. "And watch out for wet paws!"
An Ice Beam came his way, then another Water Pulse, and Riolu burst the Water attack with his Aura Sphere before it could reach him. That splattered him with water, though, and Starmie sent another Thunderbolt his way- and, even though he dodged it, paws slipping slightly on the now-wet platform, the edge of the electrical effect caught him anyway.
"Psychic!" Misty instructed, and Riolu crossed his forearms and formed a pair of Shadow Claws from the nubs on his wrists. He adjusted his stance for a fraction of a second, watching as Starmie's attack built up and approached, then swiped out with one Claw and did a jumping roll through the hole he'd slashed in the attack.
Violet gasped, definitely sounding impressed.
"Since when did Starmie know all those moves?" Daisy said. "I didn't know they could do all of those!"
"Riolu, go for it!" Ash called.
Riolu knew what he meant. They'd talked about it, and it was what he'd been working on alongside Shadow Claw, so he bent down into a starter's crouch for a moment before breaking into a sprint.
He crossed the floating platform in a moment, and kept going – running across the choppy surface of the swimming pool on blue-glowing feet as if it were slightly springy but solid ground.
"What the-" Misty gasped. "Starmie, get up, away from him!"
"Too late!" Riolu announced, springing off a wave. "Shadow Claw!"
The flickering phantom claws struck home, one catching onto Starmie's arms and the other swiping across their core, before a burst of Psychic energy blew him back into the water.
"Riolu, are you okay?" Ash called.
I'm fine, Ash, Riolu sent, focusing on their bond to try and get across the sensation of being okay, then tried to form his next plan.
One idea was no good because he didn't know everything Starmie could do, another wouldn't work because there wasn't a convenient palm tree, and he decided to see if Ash had any better ideas.
The moment he broke the surface of the water, though, Starmie hit him with another Thunderbolt.
"I thought this was the Water gym!" Riolu protested.
"Down to the bottom!" Ash called. "Swim down!"
Riolu did as Ash wanted, swimming down to the bottom of the pool, then stopped and tried to work out what his trainer and friend was actually thinking of.
Above him, the water rippled as Starmie used Psychic and Thunderbolt, but neither attack actually reached Riolu… but he'd have to come up soon.
Then Riolu realized it.
Ash had known that, which was why he'd known Riolu would work that out.
He tensed up, crouching on the bottom of the pool, then kicked off and swam up as fast as he could.
Bursting out of the water, Riolu swiped out with his Shadow Claws again at the apex of his climb. He'd known exactly where to aim, thanks to Aura Sight, and he got in two more good hits on Starmie – the second one reducing their core's bright glow to a flashing warning.
"Recover!" Misty said, as Riolu splashed back into the pool again.
Riolu wondered if he was old enough to know any words strong enough to express his feelings about that, but then Starmie hit him with another Thunderbolt and a trio of Water Pulses in quick succession.
"He's out," Ash said, holding up Riolu's Pokéball and recalling him, then sent the Fighting-type out again. "Brock, do you think he needs to be checked up? He was underwater when he fainted."
"Hmm," Brock replied. "I'll check on him during the rest of the battle."
"Thanks," Ash replied. "Okay, Misty, that's one to you, but I'm still earning that Cascade Badge!"
Ash sent out Butterfree, next, and Misty responded with a Seel.
Daisy looked uncomfortable. "You're using Seel?"
"He's not a combat Pokémon," Violet agreed.
"You'll see," Misty replied, smirking.
"Butterfree?" Ash said. "You know your style better than I do, so go ahead!"
"With pleasure!" Butterfree said, hovering in front of Ash and waiting for the go-ahead to begin, then Lily brought her hand down.
"Battle!"
"Double Team, Seel," Misty instructed.
Butterfree's first move was to blast forwards and use Energy Ball, but it hit one of the duplicates, and he pulled up rapidly with a flare of his wings as Misty gave her next order. "Ice Beam!"
"Stun Spore?" Ash said, phrasing it as a suggestion, and Butterfree took it. He shed a cloud of powder from his wings even as he dodged away from the Ice Beam, then blew it in Seel's direction, and Misty ordered Seel to scoot forwards into the water to avoid being doused in the paralyzing powder.
"Quiver Dance, I think," Butterfree decided, starting to boost himself, then Seel popped their head above the water.
"Safeguard!" Misty called quickly. "Now, Aurora Beam!"
Butterfree found it a lot harder to dance all of a sudden, as Seel's horn glowed and he began shooting beams of ice upwards into places which – inconveniently – happened to be where Butterfree wanted to go.
"Okay, wise guy, you want to have some of this?" Butterfree asked, his eyes and then his whole body glowing. "Psychic!"
A wall of force slapped down, hitting around Seel and dishing out the water around him. That left Seel out of the water for a moment, and Butterfree hit him with an Energy Ball while he was vulnerable, but then Seel slipped deeper under the water.
"Okay, um, apparently Seel is a good combat Pokémon," Violet admitted. "Wow, I did not expect the little guy could pull this off."
"Seel, Aqua Ring!" Misty instructed.
"The water's clear!" Ash said. "Sunny Day!"
"Sunny Day," Butterfree agreed, and the clouds overhead rippled and moved aside. Sunlight shone through the ice blasts that had already hit the ceiling, and Butterfree glowed as he prepared a Solarbeam.
"Rain Dance, Seel," Misty countered, and the clouds closed in again. It began to rain outside, and inside as well, and Seel popped up to shoot a Bubblebeam up at Butterfree – prompting him to roll to one side, and then the other, to evade being hit.
"I'm going to have to insist," Butterfree said. "Sunny Day."
Another pulse of energy, and the indoor rain cleared up while the rain outside stopped.
"Hail and Blizzard!" Misty ordered.
A surge of ice came blasting out of the water as Seel launched another attack, this time one which caught Butterfree's wing. The rest of the ice splashed against the ceiling, joining the layers of ice covering the glass, and Daisy looked nervous.
"You know, this is a bit more intense than we usually do?" she tried.
"Perhaps you didn't hear me," Butterfree declared, dodging through the hailstones, and lit up with a cheerful green-yellow glow.
"I."
"Said."
"Sunny."
"Day."
The hailstorm stopped.
Outside, the clouds boiled away from Cerulean Gym in every direction, forming an area of clear sky several miles across.
Inside, Butterfree glowed with solar energy. "Now, where were we?"
"Aurora Beam!" Misty commanded.
"No, that wasn't it," Butterfree replied, and used Solarbeam.
The attacks collided about halfway between the floor and the ceiling, sending flashes of snow and ice fragments all over the inside of the gym. The backscatter made the ice shapes on the ceiling sway dangerously, and after a moment the two beams slid past one another as Butterfree kept moving.
His Solarbeam was now no longer stopped by Seel's own beam attack, and it cannoned into the water in a plume of spray and hit Seel's tail hard enough to send him spinning around.
That came as too much of a surprise for Seel to let him turn off his Aurora Beam in time, meaning Seel fired it down, and ice formed around him that buoyed him up.
"Whirlwind!" Ash said. "Get him in the air!"
"Seel, break that ice!" Misty called, but too late. Butterfree's Whirlwind slapped into the water, knocking it aside and leaving Seel further up, and Butterfree himself darted down close enough to fling Seel bodily into the air with Psychic.
"Whirlpool!" Misty called, but Butterfree wasn't going to let Seel get away now. He curled around in loops and whirls in mid-air, flinging Energy Balls at Seel from a dozen different directions to keep the Water-type juggled.
A few of them missed as Seel tried to get his Whirlpool going, and left splintered holes in the walls, then Butterfree swirled up another Whirlwind to keep Seel in the air for just long enough and pulled up into an outside loop.
"Solarbeam!" he concluded at the apex of his circle, firing a thick beam of light down hard enough to slam Seel right back into the pool and drench everyone in the room.
"Gah!" Lily yelped, flinching back from the spray. "That's too cold!"
"Nice work, Butterfree!" Ash called. "Is Seel out?"
"I think he must be," Daisy replied. "I didn't think he could have lasted for half that battle… that means the score's tied now, right?"
She looked around. "We're going to have to get builders in to fix those holes now."
"I'm going to get some more towels," Violet said.
"Now that was satisfying," Butterfree pronounced, and returned himself.
Pikachu already knew he was the third and last Pokémon Ash was using, and hopped forwards onto the driest-looking and least-icy floating platform before rubbing his paws together. "Okay, let's see what you've got!"
As he did, Butterfree sent himself out again.
"Changed my mind, want to watch," he clarified, perching on Ash's hat, and Ash chuckled.
"I think we all want to watch," Riolu said, pacing over from where he'd been up in the stands.
"Oh, great!" Ash smiled.
"I got woken up by a lot of water," Riolu explained. "I'm achey, and I wouldn't want to go into another battle, but I can watch."
Misty had waited while Ash got his other Pokémon sorted out, including Pidgeot who took up a position next to him (and got an admiring ooh from Daisy), then held up the third Pokéball she was using today.
"Chinchou!" she explained, sending the Water-type out. "One of the gym Pokémon!"
"Wow, Misty, what did this guy do to you?" Violet asked.
"Glad you asked!" Misty replied. "Because, thanks to him, my bike is now past tense!"
"Chinchou," Ash said, frowning. "I haven't seen one of those in a while? There was something about them…"
"Begin!" Lily called.
"Signal Beam!" Misty called immediately, and Pikachu dodged to one side before lighting up his cheeks.
He hit Chinchou with a Thunderbolt, then stopped and did a double-take. "Um."
"Chiin?" Chinchou asked, innocently.
"Usually that works," Pikachu replied.
Ash-
"Try harder?" Ash suggested, and Pikachu tried harder. He produced an Electroball in a cloud of sparks, then hammered it in Chinchou's direction with his tail, and it detonated on top of Chinchou in an electrical explosion which obscured Chinchou from view completely for a long moment.
When the sparks faded, Chinchou was still there, and waved.
"Surprised, Ash?" Misty asked.
Chinchou has the ability Volt Absorb, Dexter chimed in. This means it is not harmed by Electric Attacks, but is in fact healed by them. Some Chinchou also have Water Absorb.
"Oh, yeah, it's Water and Electric type," Ash remembered. "Oops… wait, what can Pikachu do to him then?"
He looked up. "Try and get in close, Pikachu!"
Chinchou fired a Signal Beam at Pikachu, then dropped into the water with a splash before Pikachu could get there.
"I knew you'd use Pikachu, Ash!" Misty said. "Of course I prepared to deal with any of the Pokémon you have, I know what they are!"
"It's a shame we didn't come out in a different order," Riolu said.
"Speak for yourself, I could handle any of Misty's Pokémon," Butterfree replied.
"I think he's talking about how he's got Aura Sphere, which would work on Chinchou even underwater," Pidgeot contributed. "While Pikachu could blast through Starmie's Recover."
"Ash, any help?" Pikachu asked, wobbling as a Psybeam hit his platform from underneath and made it rock alarmingly. "I don't fancy trying to out-swim a Water type!"
"I… yeah!" Ash said. "Okay, Pikachu, we're changing the game! See if you can get on the ceiling!"
Pikachu did a running jump from the platform to the side of the pool, scrabbled for a moment on the edge, and hoisted himself up with his tail. That got him out of the way of the Scald attack Misty called for next, and he ran for the still-dripping wall nearby.
"Ice Beam the walls," Misty ordered, and Chinchou popped up onto one of the platforms himself. His antennae flashed, and an Ice Beam hit the wall Pikachu was aiming for.
Over the next few seconds, Chinchou's beam tracked over all the rest of the walls as well, freezing them and covering them in slick ice, then he dropped back into the water before Pikachu could get any ideas.
Pikachu turned, cheeks sparking, and blasted a Thunderbolt at the water.
It didn't do anything, but it made him feel better and that was enough right now.
"Pikachu, don't let that stop you!" Ash called. "Break the ice! Volt Tackle!"
"What's Volt Tackle again?" Misty asked. "Isn't that the one Pikachu used on Butterfree?"
Pikachu's cheeks lit up with fizzing electricity, and he turned to get a better run-up before blitzing the whole length of the room and slamming into the wall. It shook visibly, making a few of the ice sculptures on the ceiling fall off to splash into the pool.
"Did the ceiling just shake?" Daisy asked.
"What kind of building hit me?" Pikachu asked, shaking his head to try to recover, then got hit by a Signal Beam.
"You hit the building!" Ash called helpfully. "Pikachu, climb up to the ceiling!"
Pikachu shook his head a bit more, then looked for the nearest crack and went scampering up it.
"Great!" Ash called. "Look out – dodge left!"
Chinchou fired a Psybeam, and Pikachu evaded it, then deflected away a Signal Beam with Iron Tail.
"That's better," he said, before hopping up into one of the ice sculptures on the ceiling.
"Now, get going!" Ash said. "Start with Counter Shield and go from there!"
"Psybeam your way into that ice sculpture, Chinchou!" Misty called, shading her eyes against the sunlight to look up at the ceiling. "What's Pikachu doing in there?"
There was a visible circle of electricity around him. Then a sphere, then… something that looked odd.
It was moving in patterns, by the looks of things.
"Well, there's no way Pikachu can beat Chinchou so long as he can heal from the water," Ash explained.
"That's not what I asked, Ash!" Misty replied.
"Ready, Pikachu?" Ash called.
"Just about!" Pikachu replied.
"Then let's do this!" Ash called, and Pikachu sprang clear of the ice. There were three rings of electricity around his body, each one rotating independently of the other two, and Pikachu was surrounded by a yellow-white electrical glow.
"Volt Crash!" Ash and Pikachu said, at the same moment.
The three circles locked together into one at a horizontal angle, and a bolt of electricity a foot thick blasted down into the Cerulean Gym pool. Water and mist and steam went everywhere, absolutely deluging everyone in the room with almost the entire contents of the pool, and the impact nearly knocked Lily off her feet.
"Whoa!" she yelped.
"You actually finished it?" Misty asked. "That's where I recognized it from!"
"Now, Pikachu, Force Palm the pool floor!" Ash continued, eyes closed to confirm that Chinchou hadn't been blasted out of the pool himself. "Fake an Earthquake!"
Pikachu clapped both paws together, one of them flashing yellow and the other blue, then drew his right fist back.
"What kind of-" Violet tried, then Pikachu hit the pool floor.
The impact was a lot more than he really should have been capable of, partly because he deliberately tried and failed to form an Aura Sphere at the same time, and the result really did make the building shake.
Ice rained down from the roof. Chinchou flinched. Ash glanced up, in case any of the ice was about to land outside the pool – then his eyes widened.
"Everyone out!" he said. "The roof's about to go!"
Fortunately, Cerulean Gym had plenty of well-placed emergency exits.
Pikachu, meanwhile, mostly took what Ash said as a reason to watch out for falling debris. He avoided two panes of glass, dodged away from a piece of the metal support frame, then – in the interests of fairness – jumped up and hit the one about to land on Chinchou with a Force Palm to smash it to pieces.
In the interests of actually winning the gym battle, he then hit Chinchou with Force Palm as well.
"I can't believe this, Ash!" Misty said. "The bike wasn't enough, you had to break my gym as well?"
"I was trying to win the Cascade Badge!" Ash defended himself. "And I did! What are you complaining about?"
Misty pointed at the gym. "That! That is what I'm complaining about, Ash! This was supposed to be an impossible fight to teach you humility! They're character tests, not just demolish-the-building tests!"
"Is that actually a thing?" Riolu asked, looking up at Brock. "Butterfree, can you ask him if it's actually a thing?"
"Riolu wants to know if character tests are a thing," Butterfree provided. "Honestly, thinking about how Ash got… actually, yeah, I think that must be the main way he got them before."
"We do have a lot of leeway in how we award them," Brock confirmed. "There's three ways to earn one, in general. Battle, and good deed, and then the third one is something to do with the gym. So for Pewter it's to be enduring like rock, meaning, you don't give up and you endure difficulty."
He shrugged. "Most gyms don't advertise them for obvious reasons, and I think Misty might have made this one up a bit. But last time Ash got most of his badges in Kanto because of the strength of his character, not because of his team's strength."
"Didn't Team Rocket interrupt a lot of them?" Pidgeot mused. "That explains a few things."
"Couldn't you just have set me a challenge that I wouldn't have tried to beat my way through?" Ash asked, back over at that argument.
Misty closed her eyes. "Ash? Run. Because I'm going to try and strangle you now."
"Don't strangle him yet!" Lily called. "Like… at least leave it long enough for the insurance statement!"
"I'll go wake up Vaporeon," Violet decided.
"Vaporeon?" Butterfree asked, interested. "Why Vaporeon? Why didn't Misty use that one?"
He fluttered his wings. "I'd have had trouble with that one."
"Hmm…" Brock pondered. "It could be that it's because Vaporeon is specialized in making things instead of battling. At a guess, it would be using groundwater to bring up silica and crystallizing it into opal, but I'm kind of interested to see if I'm right…"
In the distance, meanwhile, Meowth was up a tree without a ladder.
Sure, he was a cat, and it was expected, but still.
"Lessee…" he said, adjusting a pair of large, black binoculars which were the most sinister thing about the whole situation. "Twerps outside… yep, dere's Pikachu, he just got 'im out of the gym… and a hole in the ceilin'. You keepin' track of all this?"
Growlie made a sort of puzzled woofing sound.
"Huh?" Meowth asked, leaning over. "Whadda ya mean you ain't been takin' any notes? Do you think all this is for fun?"
Growlie waved a paw. "Niine?"
"I don't know how you're supposed to take notes, that ain't my department!" Meowth replied. "I'm the seeing-eye cat, you're the writing-down dog. Unless you wanna swap places an' get up the tree?"
Growlie huffed.
"Yeah, but Jessie an' James are all the way over at Lavender Town, so we gotta do the self reliance thing," Meowth said. "An' quiet, or you'll let 'em know we're here!"
The Fire-type said something rude.
"Wow, you ain't wastin' time getting rude, are you, big guy?" Meowth asked, raising the binoculars again. "Wait, where did they go?"
8
"Well, James?" Jessie asked. "How near are we?"
"Well, the guide says…" James began, then trailed off. "The guide book says something, but I can't read it, because it's dark."
He frowned. "Let's see, where have we gone so far… we went down the ladder, then we went, south, east I think, probably south, then we ran away from Zubat and fell down a hole. Then we went south, east, north, west, in a circle two more times, then we woke up the Zubat again and ran away from them."
"I'm starting to think we're lost," Jessie said, gritting her teeth.
"Well, we went up a ladder after that, so we were back on the floor we started on," James said. "Then we met someone who wanted a Pokémon battle, but left them attacking the wall… then they got swarmed by the Zubat, but so did we and we fell down another hole."
"This is not a short cut," Jessie grumbled.
As it turned out, Rock Tunnel was pitch black, which should have been obvious to anyone who knew anything about the geography of Kanto.
In the Rockets' defence, they hadn't been in Kanto in a while.
"Any more bright ideas, James? Maybe battle the Twerps directly under a power line?"
"Oh, that might work," James said, pondering. "That way the power line would suck away Pikachu's electricity!"
"And then it collapses on us," Jessie replied. "Which would ruin our plan, electrocute both of us, and it would ruin our hair!"
"Oh, good point," James agreed. "So, we're agreed, no more falling in holes? Then what do we do now?"
"Now, we…" Jessie began, then stopped, and fumbled around on her belt. "Right. Now, we do… this. Arbok!"
Arbok came out of his snazzy new Luxury Ball with a white flash that illuminated them for about a quarter of a second.
"Clever idea, Jessie!" James said."Now we just need to send our Pokémon out another several hundred times and we'll know where we are!"
"No, James, my genius is much more subtle than that!" Jessie replied, striking a pose and banging her arm on the wall. "Ow!"
"It's so subtle it can't even be noticed!" James said.
Jessie tried to give James a suspicious look, but it was spoiled by how she was actually looking about six feet away from where James was.
"Anyway," Jessie resumed. "What we do is, we both hold on to Arbok, and Arbok guides us out because he can sense infra-red light! That means he can see in the dark!"
"That sounds like a great plan," James said. "Only problem is, will we both fit holding on to Arbok?"
"What's your idea, then?" Jessie asked defensively.
James sent out Weezing. "We hold on to Weezing, Arbok holds on to Weezing, Arbok gives directions, and we go the way Weezing is moving! It's fool-proof!"
The Zubat rustled overhead, and both Rockets went silent in a hard-learned reflex.
"That might actually work," Jessie conceded, much more quietly. "But how are we going to get Arbok onto Weezing?"
"I'll just pick him up," James volunteered.
"That's me you're holding!" Jessie hissed.
After several false starts and a lot of banging into walls, the Rockets eventually left Rock Tunnel as the sun set.
Along with a cloud of Zubat.
"Next time," Jessie summarized, "we take the balloon."
The next morning, James looked up from his guidebook.
"Okay, here we go," he said. "The map says that there's interesting Pokémon around here. And we need interesting Pokémon!"
"Yeah, because right now we do not have a varied team," Jessie grumbled. "Especially not for Admins, which we are now. Two Poison-types and one Fire-type just won't cut it."
"Types?" James asked. "I was mostly thinking about appearance! There's too much purple, and the only other way of fixing it is colour theory."
He shook his head. "No chance."
"Whatever," Jessie said. "Just keep a look out for a good Pokémon for us to catch, that's the point."
"Sure thing, Jessie!" James said. "Now, if I were a wild Pokémon, where would I be… oh, that's right. The wild! And that's where we are, how convenient!"
"You've got to admit, looking in a building wouldn't be a good place to start," Jessie mused.
Then James tripped over something.
"Ow," he complained. "I could swear there was nothing there when I put my foot down."
"Don't make excuses!" Jessie told him. "Hold on, did you just trip over… that's a Pokémon."
James rolled over, sitting up, and saw that there was a sleeping Abra just where he'd been trying to walk.
He looked confused. "Should I? This seems weird, and not just because we're actually trying to catch a wild Pokémon."
"Well, it'd be rude not to, right?" Jessie said.
James got out another Luxury Ball, but fumbled the process and dropped it.
With a faint bink, Abra teleported under the 'ball and got caught.
"Huh," Jessie said. "If it's normally that easy I can see why the Twerp usually does it."
James picked up the Luxury Ball, looking faintly puzzled. "Well, that's one down, now we need a new Pokémon for you, right?"
"And we need to get back to Cerulean City," Jessie pointed out. "Which is going to take ages."
Abra came out of their Pokéball. Or I could take you there.
"Whoa!" James jumped. "There's a voice in my head!"
"There's a voice in my head, too!" Jessie agreed. "Who said that?"
Me, Abra replied, eyes still closed. The Abra you just 'caught', get it? I'm psychic, which I can spell if you need it.
"Can all psychic Pokémon do this?" Jessie asked. "And are most of the other ones we met more polite?"
I don't know, I haven't met them, Abra replied. This is just quicker than spending days going somewhere. And, just so you know, I need some idea of where you're going, but I can do it a lot. Especially if it's just me… but that sounds like too much effort.
"Too much effort?" James said, thinking. "You mean, it tires you out?"
I'm lazy, Abra clarified. It's genetic, what do you want?
He pointed. Oh, and go that way for a Pokémon interested in joining you. I'm going to sleep, this was enough talking for one day.
With that, Abra returned himself.
"Did he actually say anything?" James said. "Technically, I mean."
"Well, he did say he was lazy…" Jessie replied, then shrugged. "Let's see if he actually had an idea what he was… not talking about."
Arbok slithered forwards to investigate, at Jessie's command, and when the Rockets caught up they saw that Arbok was peering with interest at a Cubone huddled under a tree.
"Oh, it looks like the little sweetie is scared," Jessie said, putting both hands together against her right cheek. "Adorable!"
Cubone glanced up at her, then smacked Arbok into the ground hard enough to leave a dent.
"And I like her attitude!" Jessie said.
"Sometimes I don't like your attitude," James groaned.
Jessie chose to ignore that.
"Well, little one?" she asked. "Want to come with us?"
Cubone cocked her head to one side, thinking it over.
Arbok woozily rose back up from the shape he'd left in the ground, and shook his head.
Cubone met his gaze steadily, then used her bone to vault into Jessie's arms.
Jessie's first Pokémon sighed. "Just my luck," he hissed, to Weezing. "Both the new team members can beat me up with type advantage…"
Weezing sniggered. It sounded a lot like his normal wheezing, but when you know a 'mon…
"Oh, shut up. Levitate isn't perfect, you know."
As the sun set near Cerulean, Ash and friends set up on a wooded hill for the evening. It was already wet, and so was the ground, but it wasn't so bad under the trees and they were used to it now.
"It's nice to be back, Ash," Bulbasaur said, stretching. "Well, nice to be back with the team? And to enjoy it before it gets a bit hectic with everyone back."
Ash chuckled. "It was a good birthday present to get you back," he agreed. "And, I don't know if I ever said it before, but… thanks for being so good at managing the Pokémon back home. I know you ended up doing a lot of it."
"It wasn't something you made me do, but I'm glad to be appreciated," Bulbasaur chuckled.
He stepped out from the cover of Ash's tent into the rain, and rolled his body a bit. "Too much rain is a bit annoying, but it's nice to get a bit," he said. "Don't you think?"
"Rain can be nice, especially after a hot day," Ash agreed.
"I don't think you celebrated your eleventh last time, though?" Bulbasaur asked. "I think I'd have noticed it… admittedly I'm not certain, but it seems like the sort of thing I'd remember."
"Yeah, we sort of… got very lost," Ash admitted. "Actually, uh… Dexter, can you do a map?"
I have Pokémon mapping software, please wait.
Ash got the Pokédex out, and Bulbasaur trotted over to have a look.
There, Dexter said, tracing out their route.
"Wow," Bulbasaur replied. "You're right. You were very lost indeed. South, then north, then south again..."
He scratched his head with a vine. "I'd say it's not possible to get lost in time, but we are lost in time."
"What's that?" Pikachu asked, scampering over. "That Shockwave experimenting is going well, Ash… oh, is this the birthday thing?"
"Yeah, it's the birthday thing," Ash confirmed. "I guess I just think of all the friends I made as my birthday presents."
"I like that," Bulbasaur nodded. "It's a nice way of thinking about it. Plus… you know."
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "Fixing that is going to be nice."
He stretched. "It'll be nice to have Charmander back, too… well, Charizard. I don't think we worked out how to describe Pokémon who evolve when they're reminded of what happened last time yet."
"Not a problem for me," Bulbasaur said.
"It will be for Charmander, though," Pikachu said, then frowned. "Um… wait."
Ash looked up at his tone. "What's wrong, Pikachu?"
"Charmander didn't talk much about what happened, but he said he was out on the rock for days," Pikachu replied.
"Days?" Ash repeated, blanching. "Oh crap – Dexter, how does that work out?"
He would already be out there.
Ash grabbed Pidgeot and Butterfree's Pokéballs with one hand, Bulbasaur's with the other, and ran out into the rain.
The rain, which hadn't happened last time.
"Dexter, give me a direction!" he called. "Bulbasaur, return – Pidgeot, come on out, we need to hurry!"
"Huh?" Misty asked, already halfway asleep, then jerked upright as something went BOOM nearby. "What was that?"
She looked around, then out of her own tent. "Was that Ash?"
It was cold, and wet, and Charmander was trying his best.
He was curled up on a rock, in the driving rain, and he was doing exactly what Damian wanted. Damian told him to wait, and he was waiting.
His tail flame was curled up under a leaf, which was the best shelter he'd been able to find, and he'd had to leave the rock for it. Just for a moment.
And part of him wondered if that would mean he'd failed Damian.
Damian will come. I'm sure of it. He just wants me to prove myself.
Charmander sneezed, and the leaf jostled around a bit. He held it to make sure it wouldn't expose his tail flame, but his paws wobbled a little and he felt cold and weary down to his bones.
He'll come. He has to.
Inquisitive Spearow were starting to circle once more. Charmander sent them scattering again with an Ember, but he was running low on energy. They didn't flee as far as they had before.
Where are you? Charmander asked himself, or Damian, he wasn't quite sure which. I've become stronger, haven't I? I've stayed out here waiting for you… I'm cold, tired, hungry… wet… I've been here for days… I wish I knew how much longer it will take.
For you to consider me strong.
For you to consider me worthy.
The rain beat against his hide, and Charmander yawned, in that way that reached right through his whole body and exposed how weary he really was.
He didn't want to go to sleep, he might miss Damian's arrival… but he desperately wanted to go to sleep.
He was so tired.
It didn't feel as cold, when he was asleep.
Maybe… just a few minutes…
Charmander's eyes drooped, and he slipped into a kind of grey and black half-sleep. Drowsy and limp, his paws holding onto the leaf so it wouldn't fall to the side, but every muscle and bone ached of weariness.
He sort of realized that falling asleep would be a really bad idea, but…
...he couldn't focus enough to consider what to do.
And all he felt was guilt.
I'm sorry, Damian. I wasn't strong enough for you.
"There!"
Charmander dreamed, and he didn't know what he was dreaming about.
A rushing wind, a thump. The sensation of arms around him.
"He's freezing! Butterfree, get us some clear skies – I don't care what it does to the weather!"
The rain went away, fading out in moments, and Charmander's leaf slipped away from his grasp.
It was a nice dream, being rescued.
Even if it was too late to really believe it.
...then, only moments later, Charmander's eyes opened again.
It felt like only moments later, but there was an intense sun beating down on him. It had to have been hours at least.
He was still a bit vague about what had happened, but… the fact he was awake seemed like a surprise.
"Oh, good, you're up," a Bulbasaur said.
Charmander rolled over onto his side, on a bed of some kind of dry wood covered with leaves, and saw that the Bulbasaur was standing next to a trio of Pokéballs – two of them empty, and one of them with the light that indicated it was full.
"Who are you?" Charmander asked, and for some reason the Bulbasaur looked sad.
"Bulbasaur," he introduced himself. "I have experience taking care of sick Pokémon, so I stayed to take care of you while Ash and his Butterfree went to look for berries."
"Who's Ash?" Charmander asked. "Does he know Damian?"
"No, he's my trainer," Bulbasaur replied. "He's the one who got to you last night… he barely got to you in time. You had a very lucky escape, Char – Charmander."
Bulbasaur's bulb glowed, confusing Charmander for a moment, until he saw that the few wisps of clouds in the sky overhead, right near the sun, were fading away.
Sunny Day?
"The best things for a Fire-type who's had a scare like you did are intense sunlight, good warmth, and this," Bulbasaur added, putting a faintly glowing blue leaf from a nearby pile onto Charmander's tail flame. It flared up, then subsided, but it was a bit larger than before.
Still not healthy, but larger.
"Magical Leaves. That's the best thing right now, anyway," Bulbasaur added. "Pidgeot kept you warm all of last night with her wings, then it's us in the morning."
"But… why are you doing this?" Charmander asked. "I failed, I'm not strong enough-"
"None of that!" Bulbasaur said, sharply.
"We're concerned, that's what it is," a Butterfree added, floating down to drop a pair of Berries in front of Charmander. "Yache and Passho. One of them helps with your body heat, the other is good against water attacks. Have some of them both."
Charmander looked at the berries, then up at the trainer standing a bit further away.
This 'Ash', he guessed… but that was for later. Now that the berries had landed there, he suddenly realized he was intensely hungry.
"Charmander? Can we talk?"
Charmander looked around, startled to see 'Ash' so close.
He'd been eating… and apparently it had taken so much of his attention he hadn't even noticed Ash moving.
"This is going to sound so strange," Ash began, crouching down. "And I guess you might not believe it, but… this isn't the first time we've met. But I know you won't remember me."
Charmander had no idea what Ash was talking about. How would that even work?
"Did you make sure I didn't see you, or something?" he asked.
"It's… well," Ash began, and took a red box out of his pocket.
A Pokédex, Charmander thought.
Ash flipped it open, and showed Charmander the image. "That's you."
Charmander looked at it.
It was a Charmander, in the middle of some kind of rocky canyon. Charmander had never seen it before, but when he looked closer… there was the tiny scar on his tail. There was the little fleck in his eye.
It was him, or it was a Pokémon so much like him that they'd have to be twins – and even that wouldn't explain the scar.
"And… Dexter?" Ash asked. "They're not organized great..."
This is also you, the Pokédex device said, and flashed up another picture.
This one was… not Charmander.
It was a Charizard, in an arena somewhere in a city, full of fire and in amazing condition. Charmander hadn't been around many Charizards in the past, but this one looked… amazing.
Full of passion and strength.
"Do… is that what I need to turn into?" Charmander asked. "Is that why Damian wanted me to toughen up?"
He frowned. "How can that be a picture of me? It sounds like that's me from the future, but I'm too weak to do that."
"I… guess you're asking about if that's the future, right?" Ash checked. "I can kind of follow that… and, yeah, it is you from the future. You became my Pokémon, and we went a long way together, and you got so strong…"
Ash swallowed. "And, we had some trouble, but we got through it. Because we were friends."
He smiled. "And, well… that's actually how Bulbasaur and Butterfree and Pidgeot know me so well. It's because I was able to remind them of the time we spent together. And I can do that to you, too. So you remember our time together."
He sank back to the ground, sitting on the grass. "But you've been in such a difficult situation, Charmander. And I don't want to force you. So… it's your choice."
Charmander looked down at the berries he'd been eating, and finished them.
"Is it because I'll be strong?" he asked.
"You'll be strong, yeah," Ash replied. "But… it's not because of that, if that's what you're asking. Dexter, can you show us Cleopatra Island?"
The Pokédex screen changed, showing Charizard – the same one from before – lying on a beach, with a pair of hands rubbing his side.
"You lost a battle," Ash explained. "And, it went really badly, but that's when we really learned how to work with one another."
He swallowed again. "I'm not saying it was all great, but… a lot of it was, and I think you came out of it such a strong Pokémon. And happy."
"Ash-" Bulbasaur began.
"It's up to Charmander," Ash said, firmly. "So, what do you think?"
"Are we sure he went this way?" Misty asked. "Really, really sure?"
"Well, that's what Pikachu and Riolu are pointing to," Brock replied. "I know it's way off the main routes, but I can't remember exactly which way we were going when we met Charmander."
He shrugged, then winced as Steelix smashed through a tangle of undergrowth. "And at least we don't have to break trail ourselves."
"I guess," Misty agreed, sighing. "And… yeah, you're right, Ash did have to rush off and find Charmander. It's just… how do we manage to get so lost?"
"It's Ash," Brock said. "Has to be. You guys kept getting turned around in the Orange Islands, right? So it's not me, and it's not you… he's a good friend, but he could get lost on a straight road. And has."
"It's some kind of area effect, it has to be," Misty grumbled. "All of this is only a couple of days from where I grew up! Going through towns I've visited before! And… oh, I can't believe this."
"What?" Brock asked.
"I'm angry at myself now, and also Ash again," Misty explained. "I completely forgot to get him to check for that Magikarp in Cerulean Gym. I want Gyarados back, that way I've got another heavy hitter, even if he is really vulnerable to electricity."
She sighed. "It's a pity sometimes being a type specialist, right, Brock?"
Brock tried his best to think of a way to distract Misty from how he was in line to have a team consisting of Steel, Ground, Rock, Poison, Flying, Bug, Grass, Water, Fighting, Normal and Fire-types, then was saved by a whoop from up ahead.
Riolu was pointing into the distance, and Pikachu was jumping up and down on his branch with enough energy that it looked like it was going to break.
"Steelix, hold on!" Brock called. "Can you see what's going on?"
Steelix reared up, rising above a lot of the undergrowth, then made a noise. "-teelix!"
Then Charizard flew overhead with a mighty roar, wings cupping the air, and banked around in a steep spiral before landing with a whoosh of air in some of the space Steelix had cleared for them – Ash laughing and waving, clinging onto Charizard's neck with one arm and both legs.
Elsewhere, a great battle raged.
The opponents were evenly matched, in strength, but not in tactics, as an attack slipped far past the defences and hit the defenders in their vulnerable and poorly protected interior. A decisive blow that would soon see the defeat of-
"I'm quite sure that's not how this game works," Sir Aaron said. "Lord of Creation, I request a rules adjudication."
About what? Arceus inquired.
Sir Aaron gave the Creator a look.
"Palkia has just sent fourteen armies to attack my troops in Unova," he said. "It's a very effective strategy, spoiled mostly by the fact he sent them through a wormhole and skipped four regions in between there and Kalos."
He looked over to the side. "And, while I'm at it, Lord of Creation, I should point out that I don't think it's especially legal for Dialga to be also playing on a separate board in the past."
When it's your turn to decide what to play, you can pick a different game, Arceus said. That is fair. Though I must admit that Palkia should probably create wormholes at the end of their turn. Is that acceptable?
"It'll do," Sir Aaron decided.
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